This press release contains:
--- Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Astrophysics: Understanding the formation of stellar nurseries
Environment: Influence of land use on temperature
Comment: Letting go of Kyoto
Ecology: Amphibian diversity at risk
Comment: Good governance for geoengineering
Developmental biology: The muscles that help insects to wing it
Geophysics: Secrets of hidden mountains are uncovered
Planetary science: Earth’s ice formations give clues about Europa's surface
Biology: Keeping worms off the ‘lawn’
Genomics: Legume sequence nods to evolution of symbioses
And finally… Why snakes cause aches
--- Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
--- Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Astrophysics: Understanding the formation of stellar nurseries (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10551
Observations of giant molecular clouds in a nearby galaxy reported in this week’s Nature provide insights into the formation mechanisms of these stellar nurseries. The magnetic fields of the clouds are aligned with the spiral arms, suggesting that the galactic magnetic field anchors the clouds.
The formation of molecular clouds is poorly understood and assessment of their molecular dynamics from our location in the Galaxy is challenging. Thus, Hua-bai Li and Thomas Henning study M33, our nearest face-on galaxy, which has spiral arms similar to those of our own Galaxy. They observe giant molecular clouds on the spiral arms and determine that the orientations of their magnetic fields correlate to that of the arms.
Some cloud formation models suggest that the influence of galactic magnetic field is irrelevant because the movements in the cloud may randomize the orientations of its magnetic field. However, the present findings support an alternative mechanism of formation for molecular clouds, indicating that galactic fields could be strong enough to impose their direction upon individual clouds.
CONTACT
Hua-bai Li (Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany)
Tel: +49 62 21 52 8459; E-mail: [email protected]
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[2] Environment: Influence of land use on temperature (pp 384-387)
The effect of land use on surface air temperature varies with latitude, according to a report in this week’s Nature. At high latitudes, the conversion of forest to grasslands or crops is associated with a local cooling effect, although this effect may be reversed at lower latitudes.
Climate models have long suggested that because grasses and crops have a higher albedo than do forests, and thus reflect more incoming solar radiation, clearance of forests should create a cooling effect. But so far, this effect across a broad geographic span has not been demonstrated. Xuhui Lee and colleagues observe the influence of land use on temperature in North America by comparing data from weather stations in cleared areas and eddy covariance towers in forested areas. They show that surface air temperature is lower in open land than in nearby forested land and demonstrate a cooling effect of close to 1 K northwards of 45° N.
Cleared sites, with their shorter canopy and thinner boundary layer, gain energy in the daytime more quickly than do forests, but this process is offset by the albedo changes. Albedo, however, is not the whole story because loss of heat through convection leads to lower night-time temperatures in cleared areas.
CONTACT
Xuhui Lee (Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA)
Tel: +1 203 432 6271; E-mail: [email protected]
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Comment: Letting go of Kyoto (pp 291-292)
At the end of the month, world delegates will convene in Durban, South Africa for this year’s rounds of UN climate change negotiations. One issue stands out: the survival or death of the Kyoto Protocol, whose emission targets expire at the end of 2012.
In a Comment article in this week’s Nature, Elliot Diringer predicts that Kyoto will probably emerge from Durban on life-support — “alive, but just barely. That shouldn’t be cause for alarm, he says: “Although the protocol remains an important emblem of multilateralism, it has become more of an impediment than a means to genuine progress.” An obsession with legally binding targets for emissions reductions, he says, has caused harm rather than good.
Instead, Diringer calls for a multi-pronged approach to climate change: countries should commit to the idea of a binding international agreement in the long term but accept that it will take a while to get there; they should follow in the footsteps of last year’s negotiations in Cancún and take incremental steps towards that goal; and they should continue to work on national policies that contribute to the cause, such as Australia’s carbon tax (agreed to just this month). Unfortunately, he adds, the United States doesn’t seem to see the economic incentives, or have the political will, that would spur such changes.
CONTACT
Elliot Diringer (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Arlington, VA, USA)
E-mail: [email protected]
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[3] Ecology: Amphibian diversity at risk (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10650
Multiple factors threaten global amphibian diversity and these threats can overlap. Research published online in Nature this week indicates that, worryingly, areas of greatest amphibian species richness are the areas subject to the greatest threat.
The three most serious threats to amphibians are climate change, land-use change and the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. Christian Hof and colleagues assess the geographical distribution of these threats in relation to the global distribution of amphibians. Regions where climate and land-use change have the highest projected impact on amphibian populations tend to overlap. By contrast, the threat posed by fungal disease varies according to location with little spatial overlap with the other two threats.
The authors find that the most species-rich areas are more likely to be exposed to one or more threats than areas with low species richness. On the basis of the observed overlapping of risk factors, the authors suggest that risk assessments based on just one threat are likely to be over-optimistic. With 30 per cent of all amphibian species already listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, amphibian populations could decline more quickly than previously thought, the researchers conclude.
CONTACT
Christian Hof (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Tel: +49 69 75 42 1804; E-mail: [email protected]
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Comment: Good governance for geoengineering (p 293)
On 26 September, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) halted the country’s first field trial of technology designed to engineer the climate. In this week’s Nature, the chairman of a panel convened by the EPSRC and the architect of the project’s governance process explain the council’s decision, and draw lessons for future geoengineering projects.
The Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project aims to assess whether the injection of particles into the stratosphere would mimic the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions and provide a means to mitigate global warming. A field trial ― pumping water through a hose to a height of 1 kilometre ― was proposed to test the delivery system. But within weeks, even this initial step triggered a storm of criticism, including a petition to cancel the experiment altogether.
However, the decision to pause the SPICE test was made independently following a detailed review process, explain Phil Macnaghten and Richard Owen. A set of stringent criteria was developed to ensure that the technology and its application were safe, and that the project’s goals had been effectively communicated. But the study could not fully meet these requirements during its review, and was postponed until it can. The authors emphasize that for any geoengineering project to be accepted, a robust governance process must be in place from the outset, and there must be open discussions with all stakeholders and the public.
CONTACT
Phil Macnaghten (Durham University, UK)
Tel: +44 191 33 41990; E-mail: [email protected]
Richard Owen (University of Exeter, UK)
E-mail: [email protected]
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[4] Developmental biology: The muscles that help insects to wing it (pp 406-409)
The mechanisms by which insects build the muscles that power fast wing movements are uncovered in Nature this week. A transcription factor that regulates the development of specialized fibrillar flight muscles in insects is identified in the fruit fly. The research suggests that this factor, sufficient to instruct flight muscle development, has been conserved across 280 million years of insect evolution.
Specialized fibrillar, stretch-activated myofibres, known as indirect flight muscles, allow insects to oscillatetheir wings at high frequencies and produce the large mechanical forces required to fly. These muscles vary from the tubular structures of all other insect body muscles. To establish what determines the fate of muscles during development, Frank Schnorrer and colleagues screen for factors involved in muscle morphogenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. They find that the transcription factor spalt major (Salm) is required to initiate indirect-flight-muscle-specific muscle fate.
Salm switches the structure of the developing muscle from tubular to fibrillar by regulating transcription and splicing, the authors report. They speculate that similar functionality may be involved in determining the fate of muscle in the vertebrate heart, which is also a stretch-activated muscle.
CONTACT
Frank Schnorrer (Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany)
Tel: +49 89 85 78 2434; E-mail: [email protected]
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[5] Geophysics: Secrets of hidden mountains are uncovered (pp 388-392; N&V)
An explanation for how an enigmatic range of mountains completely hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet may have formed is presented in Nature this week.
The Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains are the least understood tectonic feature on Earth as they are completely covered by deep ice. Features of the mountains provide conflicting clues about how they got there and how old they might be. To understand better the origins of these mountains, Fausto Ferraccioli and colleagues analyse new radar, gravity and magnetic data from the Gamburtsev region. They propose that the crustal root beneath the mountain range formed around one billion years ago. The geophysical data suggest that rifting events around 250 million years ago and again around 100 million years ago triggered the uplift of these mountains.
Considering all of the data, the authors put forward a model of formation whereby the mountain range arose from a combination of rift-flank uplift, root buoyancy and isostatic response. These processes and resulting erosion explain the observed high elevation and topology of the Gamburtsevs.
CONTACT
Fausto Ferraccioli (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK)
Tel: +44 1223 221 577; E-mail: [email protected]
John Veevers (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia) N&V author
Tel: +61 2 805 7111; E-mail: [email protected]
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[6] Planetary science: Earth’s ice formations give clues about Europa's surface (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10608
Applying experience from studying ice formations on Earth, researchers explain the processes behind formations on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, in this week’s Nature.
Models have struggled to explain how features such as chaos terrains—areas of jumbled icy blocks—came to be on the surface of Europa. Drawing on knowledge of processes observed within subglacial volcanoes in Iceland and Antarctic ice shelves, Britney Schmidt and colleagues perform an analysis of archival data from Europa. Their findings suggest that the formation of the chaos terrains is affected by water within the icy shell. Ice–water interactions, together with freeze out, give rise to the diverse shapes observed on these features.
The study provides detailed explanations of the processes involved in the formation of Europa’s surface. The authors conclude that their analyses indicate that ice–water dynamics are active in Europa’s shallow subsurface, maintaining large liquid lakes within the icy shell.
CONTACT
Britney Schmidt (University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA)
Tel: +1 832 655 7471; E-mail: [email protected]
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[7] Biology: Keeping worms off the ‘lawn’ (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10643
A gene that helps roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans) to avoid ‘lawns’ of pathogenic microbes has been discovered when analysing genetic variation in natural populations, reports a study in Naturethis week. The work shows how studying wild populations can uncover information that hasn't been accessible to laboratory studies.
Roundworms lack an ‘immunological memory’ and instead use their nervous system when learning to avoid bacteria that cause them harm. Dennis Kim and colleagues study how this behaviour varies in natural populations of C. elegans and identify a new gene involved in the process. They show how variants of this gene — hecw-1 — modulate behavioural avoidance of pathogenic bacteria. Although it is unclear how the enzyme coded by hecw-1 controls this behaviour, the authors show that it functions in a pair of sensory neurons and interacts with a known neuron signalling pathway.
CONTACT
Dennis H. Kim (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 324 0050; E-mail: [email protected]
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[8] Genomics: Legume sequence nods to evolution of symbioses (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10625
The genome sequence of Medicago truncatula, a well-established model for the study of legume biology, is published in Nature this week. The study provides important insights into the evolutionary steps that may have led to the development of nitrogen-fixing symbioses between legumes and bacteria.
Legumes are the only species of cultivated plants that can obtain nitrogen (needed for growth) through endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation with rhizobial bacteria in specialised root nodules. To gain insights into how this 'nodulation' evolved, Nevin Young and colleagues sequenced and analysed the genome of M. truncatula. The analysis reveals that a whole-genome duplication, which took place approximately 58 million years ago, significantly contributed to the shaping of the genome. Subsequent extensive rearrangements played an important part in the development of nodulation-specific signalling components and the evolution of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation.
CONTACT
Nevin D. Young (University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA)
Tel: +1 612 625 2225; E-mail: [email protected]
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[9] And finally… Why snakes cause aches (pp 410-414; N&V)
Venom from the Texas coral snake causes strong and lasting pain. Research in Nature this week uncovers the pain-causing compound and role of a particular ion channel, on which the toxin acts, in sensing pain. The findings provide useful tools for investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying pain sensation.
David Julius and colleagues identify the compound in the Texas coral snake venom that activates a large group of sensory neurons. They show that the toxin, named (MitTx) is a complex of two ‘house-keeping’ enzymes that individually do not elicit a pain response. MitTx causes pain-related behaviour in mice via activation of a specific acid-sensing ion channel—ASIC1—on nerve fibres. The contribution of this particular channel in pain perception is unexpected according to the researchers; previous studies of ASICs in pain have focussed on other members of the channel family.
These findings highlight the value of natural products that cause discomfort in identifying key components of pain-signalling pathways as potential therapeutic targets, the authors note.
CONTACT
David Julius (University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 415 476 0431; E-mail: [email protected]
Baldomero Olivera (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 801 581 8370; E-mail: [email protected]
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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[10] Observation of the dynamical Casimir effect in a superconducting circuit (N&V)
[11] Atom-resolved imaging of ordered defect superstructures at individual grain boundaries
[12] Intermediates in the Transformation of Phosphonates to Phosphate by Bacteria
DOI: 10.1038/nature10622
GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS…
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. For example, London: 4 - this means that on paper number four, there will be at least one author affiliated to an institute or company in London. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney : 10
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 4
BELGIUM
Ghent: 8
CANADA
Saskatoon: 2
Québec City: 2
Toronto: 2
Vancouver: 2
DENMARK
Copenhagen: 3
FRANCE
Castanet-Tolosan: 8
Evry: 8
GERMANY
Bonn: 8
Erlangen: 4
Garmisch-Partenkirchen: 2
Hannover: 5
Heidelberg: 1
Köln: 8
Martinsried: 4
Neuherberg: 8
JAPAN
Aoba-ku: 11
Atsuta: 11
Saitama: 10
Tokyo: 11
KENYA
Nairobi: 8
NETHERLANDS
Wageningen: 8
NIGERIA
Ibadan: 8
PORTUGAL
Évora: 3
SAUDI ARABIA
Riyadh: 8
SOUTH KOREA
Gwonseon-gu: 8
SPAIN
Madrid: 3
SWEDEN
Gothenburg: 10
UK
Cambridge: 5
London: 11
Norwich: 8
Saffron Walden: 8
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Arizona
Flagstaff: 2
California
Berkeley: 2, 9
Davis: 2, 8
Irvine: 2
San Francisco: 9
Colorado
Boulder: 2
Denver: 5
Connecticut
New Haven: 2, 3
Delaware
Newark: 8
Florida
Gainesville: 2
Iowa
Ames: 8
Massachusetts
Cambridge: 2, 7
Maryland
Edgewater: 2
Laurel: 6
Rockville: 8
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 10
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 8
Northfield: 8
St. Paul: 8
North Carolina
Durham: 2
New Hampshire
Durham: 2
NM
Santa Fe: 8
New York
Ithaca: 8
Palisades: 5
Ohio
Columbus: 2
Oklahoma
Ardmore: 8
Norman: 8
Oregon
Corvallis: 2
Tennessee
Oak Ridge: 2
Texas
Austin: 6
Houston: 6
Kingsville: 9
Texas
College Station: 12
Wisconsin
Madison: 8
West Virginia
Morgantown: 8
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PRESS CONTACTS…
From North America and Canada
Neda Afsarmanesh, Nature New York
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: [email protected]
From Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan
Mika Nakano, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: [email protected]
From the UK
Rebecca Walton, Nature, London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502; E-mail: [email protected]
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